Car Dealer went into Bankruptcy

enayet123

So I recently just purchased a car from Brookland Cars in Lancing, West Sussex. The guy who sold me the car a week from today sold it as a working vehicle of which it is not. The car has many problems and I would like him to fix all the issues or give my money back. Whenever I attempt to talk to him or approach him he refers me to the warranty policy from RAC of which seems to have very bad reviews and I do not believe will cover all the issues.

The issues I have had with the car are:

- Chip marks filled in with incorrect paint
- Kerbed alloys filled in with touch up paint
- Digital dashboard showing off characters and artefacts
- Start/Stop functionality not working and showing an error on dash
- Limping on the motorway (today!)

Although the chip and kerb marks are not big issues the other ones are fairly complicated and likely to be expensive!

When approaching Alan recently he told me that he will be "closing in 2 days". Which to me seems like he's about to go insolvent. Why has he sold me this car only to tell me he's going bankrupt?! He's totally screwed me over!

What should I do? I've already called up the credit card company and asked for my money back however they are sending forms to see if my claims about the car are legitimate. I will speak to the finance company on Monday to let them know I will not be paying. What happens from here? :mad:

Flyright

I think you need to establish the legal identity of who sold you the car. Was is Brookland Cars as a limited company or the individual as a sole trader?

enayet123

This was sold by Brookland Cars as it was in their dealership during their opening times. Not a personal sale. It was supposed to have finance on it too.

JJ_Egan

( I will speak to the finance company on Monday to let them know I will not be paying. What happens from here)

Please don't unilateral stop paying a legitimate debt .Its to easy for your credit record to be trashed and debt collectors to be called in .

gardner1

How old is the car and did you test drive it before purchase.....chips and scuffed alloys wont be included unless you both agreed that they would be sorted before you purchased

Flyright

Does the sales invoice specify whether the seller is a limited company or not?

CKhalvashi

There is a Limited company which shows as active locally on Companies House.

This will be where your claim will be.

macman

'Closing in two days' does not mean the company is bankrupt. He could be putting it into liquidation for all sorts of reasons, and he's entitled to dispose of stock up to that point. He's posting vehicles for sale as recently as 11/1 on Facebook.
Make, model age and mileage? When did you purchase it, and how much for?
Cancelling your finance repayments would be foolish in the extreme. Are you saying that you paid the deposit on a credit card and the rest is on finance?

forgotmyname

Stop start maybe just a battery issue, Its been parked up for a while and the battery may need a good charge.

If the voltage is even slightly low the stop start will be disabled.

The paint chips would have been visible when you inspected the car, same with the wheels.

Characters/artifacts maybe the battery again.

Limp mode needs the codes reading.

fraggle45

If you paid any amount on credit card then you should be covered by section 75 of the consumer credit act. The financial ombudsman website has lots of details about this including purchasing a car on finance. You will however need to prove that the car isn't fit for purpose/had faults that weren't disclosed to you at the time of purchase.

Although not quite the same I had a Dell laptop break one month out of warranty obviously Dell wanted nothing to do with it so I used section 75. My credit card company didn't want to play ball at all so keep persisting. I provided evidence that the laptop was broke (from a computer repair shop) and I made the claim that it goods should be of reasonable quality to last a reasonable time which my laptop did not. Got there in the end and the full £1500 back. Mentioning taking it to the financial ombudsman spurred them on a bit in the end because they would have had to foot the bill of a financial ombudsman report.

fraggle45

I think however you may have to keep paying the finance company but as I said any amount paid by credit card covers the whole lot so if you can prove its no good then you should get that money back. It may be worth giving the RAC warranty scheme a chance at the very least it will provide you with evidence from a reputable company what is actually wrong with the vehicle and at no cost to you.